Office Space [13] -1999-

This movie exceeded my expectation only slightly. In fact only MOST of the good gags are in the trailer. This movie was written to appeal to those who like lowbrow humor, but there were a few highbrow gags. The look at cubicle politics is what makes this movie worth watching. Vice President William “Bill” Lumbergh (Gary Cole) is a good caricature of an unlikable weasel of a boss. The hatchet men consultants Bob and Bob (Paul Wilson and John C. McGinley) are also good characters with some funny lines. Our would-be hero, Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston) is a spineless schmuck. He probably deserves to have eight bosses since he cannot even get a cover page on a TSA report, even after receiving the memo.

Peter goes to hypnosis class with his soon-to-be-ex-girlfriend. During the session, the therapist dies while hypnotizing Peter. All of a sudden Peter has a new outlook on life. We can only assume the women next to Peter to be his anorexic cheating girlfriend, we never see her while she speaks.

Office cohorts Samir Nagheenanajar (Ajay Naidu) and Michael Bolton (David Herman) are the two best characters of the movie. Herman gets some of the best lines in the movie: “PC LOAD LETTER? What the F*CK does that mean?!?” “$h*t. I'm a free man and I haven't had a conjugal visit in six months!” “If we get caught, we're not going to white-collar resort prison. No, no, no. We're going to federal POUND ME IN THE A$$ prison.”

They do a number on a fax machine with a baseball bat that looks like it was taken from a mobster-movie-style murder. I had a sense of Movie Davu, yet I could not place the scene. The Fax machine is taken out to an empty field. Peter, Michael, and Samir pummel it as if disposing of a gangland stool pigeon. There is no dialogue, only gangsta rap music plays over the slow-motion Peckinpahesque beat down.

Jennifer Aniston does not appear until maybe ten minutes into the movie. Her character, Joanna, is only useful to give protagonist Peter a conversational sounding board. Joanna could have been played by any young cute female actor. However, one scene makes me think that writer Mike Judge purposely cast Aniston in the role. Judge plays Stan the manager, Joanna’s boss, at Chotchkies (a homonym of tchotchkes). Chotchkies is much like the chain restaurants T.G. I. Fridays, Applebees, Chilis, Famous Daves, or Fuddruckers. All the useless crap you might find in a basement or garage is displayed all around the restaurant. Chotchkies does it up right. (A large sousaphone usually appears in shot). Stan hassles Joanna about the fact that she only is wearing the minimum amount of “flair” (15 buttons or pins) on her food server uniform. This scene plays twice. OK Mike, you acted with Jennifer, Great. We get it. The send-up of this type of restaurant genre takes on a life of its own in the movie.

With Peter’s new personality, he wows Bob and Bob and then finds himself promoted. He is able to get out from the clutches of Lumbergh. But, Peter develops a problem. Co-worker Drew (Greg Pitts) tells Peter about Joanna’s past history: “Lumbergh F*ucked Her!” This works itself into a funny dream sequence involving Drew and Lumbergh.

Stephen Root is priceless as Jimmy the Station owner in Newsradio. Root is wasted here as Milton, the owner of the Red Swingline stapler. The beautiful iconic office supply is forcibly taken from Milton by Lumbergh. Milton unfortunatly is the real protagonist of the movie. But since he cannot form well-understood dialogue, Peter takes his place as the lead.

We never get to see the nasty Lumbergh get ousted by Bob and Bob, even though the setup was there. All he gets is the back bumper torn from his Porsche. Peter, Samir, and Michael end up screwing up their scam. Samir and Michael end up as programmers at an Inatech competitor. Peter ends up working in construction. Yea, Peter gets the girl. Who cares? What did she have to offer really? My co-workers convinced me that this was a must see. I could stand to watch a 10 minute quote sketch synopsis and I would be happy. {BB}

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Added: June 21st 2005
Reviewer: BB
29 Point Scale Score:    [13]

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